Thursday, April 1, 2010

Global Diversity in Distance Education

Siemens discusses global diversity in education as a cohesion between the current corporate arrangement of being able to communicate and collaborate online with members of the same team or workplace no matter where they are in the world and distance learning in higher education, thus ultimately creating something akin to a world university. This type of global communication can lend itself well to workplace training, because the training models are workplace specific and reflect the mindset and goal of the company. However in education, global diversity is much different. Geographically diverse content that reflects global perspectives is possible but the immediate future of a world university does not seem to be on the horizon. Some educational institutions, like Grand Canyon University in Phoenix Arizona, open their programs up to international students, but the curriculum may not be geared toward these learners. The online curriculum has been written for the majority of the learners being based in the United States. I believe there is another level of curriculum design that would have to take place if universities wanted to open up their online doors to the world. International structure and educational procedures would need to be examined and considered before fully aligning a distance educational program to be globally and culturally diverse.

Siemens, G. (n.d.)The future of distance education. Vodcast. Retrieved from Walden University, EDUC7102

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